I Learned From You
by sdbubbles
Summary: Lessons. We all learn them, sometimes the hard way. This is what Ziva learned from the team, in particular Gibbs. Set after "Good Cop, Bad Cop." Song-fic. Mentions of Tiva and Jibbs.


**A/N: I just watched "Good Cop, Bad Cop," and this sort of just came to me. I don't know if its any good, but in "Reunion," Ziva says, "The closest I have to a father..." to Gibbs. He is her dad now, in many ways. So this is about the lessons that Gibbs, Tony, McGee, Abby, Ducky and Jenny had taught her. And how Eli taught her the wrong things.  
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**The song is "I Learned From You" by Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus.  
Hope you like this!**

**Sarah x**

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I didn't wanna listen to what you were saying,  
_I thought that I knew all I need to know.  
I didn't realize that somewhere inside me,  
__I knew you were right, but I couldn't say so.  
__I can take care of myself, yeah,  
__You taught me well._

Ziva hated listening to Gibbs explain what her father was like, what he'd done to her. She thought that she was able to handle him and his lies. Eli David was no longer her family. Her family was here, at NCIS. Gibbs had taught her that.

It had took her a long time to figure out that he was right about her father, and that she was too stubborn to admit he was right. She had known it all along. She had watched both Ari and Tali die because of Eli's cruelty.

Now, Ziva could look after herself with the rules Gibbs had taught her. Not physically, she could do that already. Gibbs had shown her how to look after her heart and mind. She was able to do that now. Gibbs was a good teacher.

_I learned from you that I do not crumble.  
__I learned that strength is something you choose.  
All__ of the reasons to keep on believing,  
__There's no question, that's a lesson  
__That I learned from you._

Ziva had learned from Gibbs that she could cry without being weak. She had the opposite drummed into her by Eli as a child. "Crying is a symbol of the weak," he would tell her. Gibbs had let her cry for Ari, let her cry for Jenny and let her cry about her time in Somalia. Because he knew it was more harmful to keep it inside.

She had been shown that strength was a choice, not something that was forced upon you. He had let her see that what Eli David had told her to do for her country was not strength, it was a road to self-loathing. Killing Ari was her choice, she saw now. Yes, it had been a direct order, but she did it to save Gibbs. Eli still believed she was following an order.

He had proved that she had made the right choice when Jenny had offered her a way out of her father's grasp. He had given a reason to love. He had let her love her friends where Eli would have told her that they were merely her tools.

Gibbs allowed her to love Tony and McGee and their childish antics. He had let her confide in Ducky. He had let her love Abby like she had loved Tali. He had accepted that Ziva and Jenny loved each other like mother and daughter, even when they lost Jenny. And Gibbs now let her love him as her father, and he loved her in a way Eli David never did.

Love is not weak. Love is necessary. Crying isn't what her father told her it was. It was good to cry sometimes. Lessons, all of which she had learned from Gibbs. There was absolutely no doubt.

_We always don't agree on  
__What is the best way  
__To get to the place that we're goin' from here  
I can really trust you, and give you the distance  
__To make your decisions without any fear.  
__I'm grateful for all of the times you opened my eyes.  
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_I learned from you that I do not crumble.  
__I learned that strength is something you choose.  
All __of the reasons to keep on believing  
__There's no question, that's a lesson  
__That I learned from you._

They rarely agreed about her future, her past and her approach when it came to other people, but he let her make her own decision. Like with Paula Cassidy, he trusted that Ziva knew what she was doing when she allowed Paula to hate her. And when she chose to stay in Israel, he let her make her decision.

When she resigned from Mossad and joined NCIS as an agent, he had no fears about what would become of her because he knew she was doing the right thing for herself. He had made the mistake of letting Jenny be blinded by her hatred of La Grenouille, and he would not let Ziva be tainted by the same hatred for her father.

Ziva was eternally grateful to Gibbs. He had made her see the truth. He'd made her look at her father's actions and orders and see that he was cruel and corrupted. He had made her look at both Rivkin and Tony, and realise that Tony was honourable and Rivkin didn't love her.

Gibbs was equally grateful to Ziva. She showed him that he loved his team. She had made him she that his team and Jenny needed him when the Iranians framed her while he was in Mexico. She made him see how much Jenny had meant to him, though he would never admit it. She had made him see that an apology meant the world when it came from someone you love. They had taught each other so much.

_You taught me to stand on my own, and I thank you for that.  
__You saved me, you made.  
__Now that I'm looking back, I can say..._

Gibbs had allowed Ziva to rely on her own instinct where her father would have forced an order upon her. She was broken when she had joined his team and he had saved her. She was broken again now. And he would build her back up again. He would fix her, she knew it.

As Ziva thought back over the four years she spent with Gibbs, Tony, McGee, Abby and Ducky, and all the years she spent with Jenny, she realised that they had all taught her something.

Tony taught her the true value of your heart. McGee had shown her what it means to prove your own ability to yourself. Ducky had taught her that trust was a good thing. Abby had shown her that she could let her hair down and have a laugh. Jenny had taught her that you need to tell someone that you need them before it is too late. And Gibbs, he had taught her everything else.

_I learned from you that I do not crumble.  
__I learned that strength is something you choose.  
All__ of the reasons to keep on believing,  
__There's no question, that's a lesson  
__That I learned from you.  
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_I learned that strength is something you choose.  
All__ of the reasons to keep on believing,  
__There's no question, that's a lesson  
__That I learned from you. _

Ziva was strong enough to pick herself up after what she had been through. And she knew that where she fell down, Gibbs would help her up again. She knew that she loved Tony now, and that he loved her. She understood the real meaning of family.

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**Hope you liked!**

**Please review!**

**Sarah x**


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